How hard is it to get disability income with a Fibromyalgia diagnosis?

Question

I have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia since 2008. As the years have gone on, it has gotten worse. My typical daily pain rating is a 5 out of 10. When you deal without from day to day, it gets very tiring. In the past 9 months, I have worked a full week twice. As of right now, I have not been to work in 10 days because the pain in my legs, shoulders, neck and back is really bad.

Can someone tell how hard it would be to get disability with this disease? At this rate, I am considering bankruptcy. My savings has been depleted. I don't relish the thought of being on disability but I am not sure how much longer I can keep this up.

Answer 1

Fibromyalgia is a fairly common disorder - in fact I've had two housekeepers with it and it hasn't prevented them from doing housework although it is obvious they are experiencing pain. I also have fibromyalgia and it never prevented me from working. It is extremely doubtful that a claim for disability would be approved with fibromyalgia as the only disorder. The definition of disability for social security/ssi is that a person's condition prevents them from doing ANY type of work and earning at least $1040 for at least a year. Any type of work includes sedentary and if you are under age 55 there would be no acceptable, non-medical reason why you couldn't gain the skills needed to do sedentary work.



Hate to say this but lots of people work with pain every day.



If you are working and earning under $1040 a month and have sufficient reason to believe that this will last for at least one full year then go to ssa.gov and file a claim online or you can call 1-800-772-1213 and make an appointment to file either over the phone or in the office.



Because social security takes into account not only the medical records but also your age, education and work experience your doctor does not make this decision.



It takes an average of 4 months to process the initial claim, 90 days to process a reconsideration and one to two years to process a request for a hearing, over a year to process an Appeals Council Review (which is the last decision to be made by social security) and I have no idea how long it takes if you go to US Federal District Court.



Initially there is a 35% chance of approval (but I would say that it would be much less with fibromyalgia). Very few reconsiderations are approved. 40% to 60% of those who go to a hearing are approved - on the higher end if a person has an attorney or disability advocate. Do not get a representative until after you've filed the request for a hearing.

Answer 2

It's tough because it's a not-that problem. It's not this, it's not that, this isn't the cause, that's not the cause.... Since there is no way of knowing the cause or causes, it falls within a gray area in the medical community. Since no one can say why, the government tends to lean towards it doesn't exist.



I can tell you that with lots and lots of testing, most which comes back negative, a doctor might be able to treat a symptom a little bit, when something comes back positive. For instance, my hubby has the ugly sister to Fibro - CFS. He still has it, but since he's a vet, so goes through the VA for health issues (and they're a government administration that refuses to diagnose it, while the CDC does say it's real), his symptoms have been alleviated, a little, through finding out he also has sleep apnea, diabetes, high blood pressure, and a host of other things wrong, that contributed to the fatigue part. The results of all the testing he has endured (and testing for stuff like nueropathy is painful as heII), he is now "only" utterly exhausted, instead of completely exhausted all the time. He can read for 15 minutes, where he used to lose comprehension on the first sentence. He mutters in pain when the famous "flu-like symptoms" hit, instead of groaning loudly. And, on a good day, he can sleep for 10 hours before waking up exhausted, instead of sleeping 8 hours to wake up exhausted.



He, too, is on Disability, but it wasn't any of the health problems or diagnoses given that got him on it. It's tough to fight a ruling when rulings are made by legal definitions and anyone can claim they have something that can't be diagnosed except to say "it's not anything else."

Answer 3

Depends which country, what the healthcare system is like. In Australia, you can basically go on disability support on Medicare if a GP diagnoses you with something. This includes fibromyalgia, depression etc, so long as it's been chronic and interferes with your life and ability to work. You may have to see a psychologist or specialist with certain conditions. I'm in Australia though, we have public healthcare. Every person has medicare. You don't have to go through insurance companies here

Answer 4

With proper proof it still can be.



Fibromyalgia is not rare. JMITW can you provide proof that this is rare? All reasearch points it to be not even "uncommon" so saying it is rare is not true. It Is common